Household blankets



y 1951 w. P. JOHNSON, JR 2,986,173

HOUSEHOLD BLANKETS Filed May 7, 195a INVENTOR.

WILL/4M I? JOHNSOM 'II BY A ORNEYS United States Patent HOUSEHOLD BLANKETS William P. Johnson, Jr., 'Asheville, N.C., assignor to Beacon Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Delaware Filed May 7, 1958, Ser. No. 733,615

1 Claim. (Cl. 139-383) This invention relates to household blankets and more particularly to an improved woven fabric blanket incorporating a selected portion of greater warmth than the remainder of the blanket.

Blankets are conventionally formed with a uniform weave structure throughout and a consequent uniform warmth, whereas it is often desirable to provide greater warmth at particular areas, such as over the feet of a sleeping person, which must ordinarily be done by pro viding a second blanket or spread of some sort to increase the cover thickness at the desired area.

According to the present invention, a blanket construction is provided in which a selected area is formed with a weave structure affording greater warmth than the remainder of the blanket and thereby providing in a single blanket for the additional warmth needed at a particular portion, such as over the feet as mentioned above. This blanket construction of the present invention is described in further detail below in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which the single figure is a perspective view of a household blanket incorporating a portion of greater warmth at a selected area in accordance with the present invention.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, the blanket illustrated, as indicated generally by the reference numeral may be of conventional size and shape, and be formed generally with any suitable weave structure. Likewise, the blanket 10 may be finished in the usual manner as to napping and coloring, etc., and may be fitted in the conventional manner with edge binding strips 12.

In forming a woven fabric for the blanket 10, however, the weave structure at a selected area, such as is indicated between the dotted lines at 14 in the drawing, is varied according to the present invention to provide greater warmth at this area :14 than the remainder of the blanket fabric at 16 and 18. More specifically, the selected area 14 of greater warmth is arranged to extend widthwise of the woven blanket fabric according to the present invention, and the greater warmth is obtained at this selected area 14 by employing a modified filling arrangement thereat. In this manner the weaving of the blanket fabric may be carried out in the usual manner with a conventionally arranged warp and the selected area 14 of greater warmth provided therein simply by modification of the filling arrangement thereat without requiring any disturbance of the normal warp arrangement beyond manipulating it to accommodate the modified arrangement of the filling.

A conventional size of household blanket 10 such as is illustrated in the drawing, is 90 inches long by 72 inches wide. For the purpose of providing a selected area 14 therein of greater warmth positioned so as to provide this greater warmth over the feet of a sleeping person, the selected widthwise area 14 is suitably spaced lengthwise adjacent one end of the blanket 10 so as to leave a conventionally formed end portion 18 in the blanket 10 2 ,986,173 Patented May 30, 1961 "ice A for tucking at the foot of a bed. This end portion 18 may suitably extend about 12 inches lengthwise of the blanket, and the adjacent greater warmth area 14 about 24 to 3-0 inches for the purposes of the present invention, leaving a remaining conventionally formed body portion 16 of about 48 to 54 inches.

The modified fillingarrangement for affording greater warmth at the selected area 14 may take several forms. The filling arrangement may be modified for example by increasing the size of the filling at the selected area 14 to provide the greater warmth desired. Such an arrangement is exemplified by a conventionally formed blanket woven with a blended rayon and Orlon filling at a pick count of 27, while using a filling size of 2.1 0 throughout the body portion 16 and one end portion 18 and changing to a filling size of 1.25 at the selected area 14. Alternatively, instead of changing the basic filling size in the above noted manner, the blanket structure may be changed to a triple weave at the selected area 14 and a stufling pick of acetate or the like introduced in a size of about 5.50, so as to double the pick count at the selected area 14 and obtain the greater warmth thereat in this manner. Additionally, the modification of the filling arrangement at the selected area 14 can take the form of simply increasing the pick count thereat. For example, a blanket woven with a filling yarn of Orlon in a size of 2.65, with a normal pick count of 24 increased to 48 at the selected area 14 has been found to provide elfectively for the greater warmth desired in this area. Another suitable manner of providing the selected greater warmth area 14 is to substitute thereat a filling yarn of different fiber content. For example, in a blanket 10 formed throughout with a filling size of 2.10 employed at a pick count of 27, by using a blended rayon and Orlon filling in the body and end portions 16 and 18 while changing to a filling of 100% Orlon at the selected area 14, a greater warmth at the selected area 14 is suitably provided.

It should also be noted that the foregoing modifications in the filling arrangement at the selected area 14 may be employed in any combination desired in carrying out the present invention, the purpose being to provide a desired greater warmth at the selected area 14, and any of the modified filling arrangements described above or any combination thereof being suitably adapted for this purpose.

The present invention has been described in detail above for purposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as defined in the appended claim.

I claim:

A household blanket comprising a woven blanket fabric having a yarn construction and a weave pattern that combine to produce desired warmth characteristics in the blanket fabric, and in which a selected area extended widthwise of the woven fabric adjacent one end thereof incorporates a modified arrangement of filling yarn ends woven to provide greater Warmth than the remainder of the blanket fabric.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 365,147 Moschcowitz June 21, 1887 687,465 Taylor J.. Nov. 26, 1901 776,275 Valentine et a1 Nov. 29, 1904 1,055,051 Knowles Mar. 4, 1913 1,623,637 Rosenthal Apr. 5, 1927 2,203,918 Moberg June 11, 1940 2,740,434 Lemieux Apr. 3, 1956 2,772,698 Linehan Dec. 4, 1956 

